Patrick eyes Indy 500 prize

By Lewis Franck

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Danica Patrick's Indy car team is confident this could be her year to win the Indianapolis 500.

Michael Andretti, a retired Indy car series champion and co-owner of her Andretti-Green Team, told Reuters Thursday that America's most famous motor race was on one of Patrick's strongest race tracks.

"She proved it in her rookie year," he said.

"She was in a position to win (in 2005 when she finished fourth). If we can give her the track position up front she's not going to be easy to pass."

Winning the Indy 500 would give Patrick the credentials she fervently wants.

While the diminutive driver broke through as the first female winner of an IndyCar series race in Japan last year, she is still best known as the race car driver who poses for swimsuit photoshoots.

The Indy 500 is the most important in the series and takes about three and one-half hours of all-out driving around the venerable 2.5 mile oval called the Brickyard to complete the 500-mile (800 km) event.

"It's such a long race, that so many things happen," Patrick, 27, told Reuters this week about having to maintain focus.